


I'm Here

by WrittenFire



Series: Whumptober 2019: Mcdanno Style [2]
Category: Hawaii Five-0 (2010)
Genre: Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Heavy Angst, Hurt Danny "Danno" Williams, M/M, POV Danny "Danno" Williams, Pre-Slash, Whumptober
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-13
Updated: 2019-10-13
Packaged: 2020-12-14 04:28:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,434
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21009737
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WrittenFire/pseuds/WrittenFire
Summary: In some way or another, things were always exploding when Steve was around.Right now (like often) it was Danny’s temper.Danny is hurt during a case, and to say Steve does not handle it well is an understatement.





	I'm Here

**Author's Note:**

> Apparantly, trying to write at home leaves you 10+ days behind schedule. Lovely. Looks like a lot of Target trips for me! Also, tagging things is _hard_. I never know what to put!
> 
> Without further ado, here is whumptober day two: explosion!

_ “Damnit,  _ Steve, what the hell is going on?” Danny yelled, storming his way into the McGarrett house, door bouncing off the wall and slamming shut behind him. He found Steve in the doorway to the kitchen, a beer in hand, looking as haggard as he had for the last two weeks.

He even looked—if possible—worse than  _ Danny  _ did, and that was quite the feat considering the Jersey native had been impaled  _ again  _ by yet another building falling apart around them. In some way or another, things were always exploding when Steve was around.

Right now (like often) it was Danny’s temper.

“What are you doing here, Danny?” Steve asked, face as blank as Danny had ever seen it.

“What do you  _ think  _ I’m doing here, Steve!” Danny flung his arms out angrily, ignoring the twinge it causes his side. Technically he should still be at home recuperating under the watchful eye of Malia, but when she was called into work, he took advantage of the lull between his self-appointed babysitters to escape in his car to Steve’s. An action that would not have been necessary had the man  _ shown up  _ for his supposed  _ best friend. _

“Where have you been, huh?”

The uncaring shrug he got in response sparked his temper further, while simultaneously rearing a hole in his heart.

“I had things to take care of.” Steve walked into the room and flopped onto his couch with a level of nonchalance,  _ ease _ , that set that tear to bleeding.

“Things more important than—than me?” He’s scared of the answer, but he  **has ** to know.

“The team had you covered.”

The silence that followed is thick, full of tension and heartbreak Danny made no effort to hide. Could this callous man—who refused to even  _ look  _ at Danny—really be his best friend, the man he’d been in love with for years? It just couldn’t be possible. The Steve he knew would never be so casual of one of his friends,  _ ohana, _ being injured, especially when that person was  _ him. _

Danny’s phone is ringing before he can figure out what to say; he fumbled to get it out of his pocket, answering with a numb “Hello”. Whatever Kono said on the other end, he didn’t catch, barely managing to force out that he would meet her back at his apartment. He stands there for a moment, waiting— _ hoping _ —for Steve to say anything else. The sound of Steve’s TV followed him out the door, shattered pieces of his heart following behind him.

\--

_ A moments warning was all he had, just a second to try and keep his most precious person alive. It was almost a moment too late; between one breath and the next Steve lost sight of Danny, dust filling the air as their world rocked around them. Steve can’t breathe until he sees Danny again, only to lose it again at the sight of blood pouring out of his injury. _

_ _

_ \-- _

_ _

_ “It’s okay, Danno, I’ve got you.” _

_ _

_ \-- _

_ _

_ “I’m here, baby.” _

_ _

_ \-- _

_ _

_ “I love you.” _

_ _

_ \-- _

_ _

_ They’re finally out, paramedics wheeling Danny further and further away from him. The noise of everything around him is a dull, unimportant blend of static Steve paid no attention to. for the entirety of his focus was in the man being driven away from him—the man that he loved. _

_ _

_ \-- _

_ _

Danny didn’t know what he should do. Ever since that awful day, he’d had nothing but radio silence from Steve. If it didn’t involve work, Danny was not acknowledged. It hadn’t taken long for the team to notice; between his demeanor when he arrived home to the glaringly obvious Steve shaped hole in his life, you didn’t have to be a trained detective to see that something had gone wrong.

Danny was back at work on light desk duty and trying hard not to torture himself by gazing longingly across the way at his partner. He wasn’t sure how long things would have continued in that depressing note had Chin not sat down with him at lunch one day to get to the bottom of it.

Danny could only be grateful that Chin was the one elected to try and fix things between the two; between his calm, Zen demeanor and knowledge of the McGarrett family and their inability to handle hard emotional turmoil  _ like normal people _ , their conversation gave Danny the courage to try once again to figure out what the fuck was going on.

The knowledge that no matter what happened—or didn’t, as the case may be—between him and Steve Danny would still have his ohana eased many of his worries. For it wasn’t just him that would lose someone in this—it was Grace, too.

So, when work ended for the day Danny found himself following Steve home, parking beside Steve’s truck and taking the open front door for the invitation to enter that it was. Steve was already seated on the lanai, so Danny grabbed a beer (more for something to fidget with than anything) and joined him, sitting in  _ his  _ chair and staring at the ocean view while he tried to figure out just what he wanted to say.

“What happened, Steve?” he finally inquired softly, glancing over at the stoic Navy SEAL from the corner of his eye. “You disappeared on me.” 

“I told you, Danny. The tea—“

“That’s  _ bullshit  _ Steve, and you know it.” Danny shifted to face Steve. “Just answer me honestly, please. I think I deserve that much.”

Steve clenched his jaw, fingers curled tight around the neck of his beer. Danny waited patiently, knowing that in this instance, silence was golden. Steve needed to think, and Danny knew if he opened his mouth the man would find a way to derail the much needed conversation. 

After long gruelling minutes of silence Steve finally made his move. “I couldn’t see you, alright?”

“Why not, Steve?”

“Because I  _ couldn’t. _ ” Steve grits; Danny could see that his patience was wearing thin— _ too damn bad, Super SEAL.  _

“I need to know why, Steve. ‘Because I couldn’t’ is not an answer, babe.”

Danny startled when Steve shot out of his seat, arms thrown out wide.

_ “Because I couldn’t  _ **is** the fucking answer, Danny!” Steve yelled, eyes wilder than he had ever seen them. “I could have lost you, do you understand that? If you hadn’t moved when I said, none of this would have mattered because  _ you would be gone. _ ” Steve spun, bottle dropped carelessly to the sand below as he ran his fingers down his face. “Fuck, Danny. I  _ can't  _ lose you. And I came so close…” he trailed off and stared blankly at the sea.

“So…your solution to almost losing me is to try and drive me away? Steven that’s—that’s  _ counterproductive.”  _ Danny groaned. “Why didn’t you just talk with me about it like a normal person?” The sad thing is that Danny could see where Steve was coming from. He knew the man enough to realize that his rationale behind this all was; rather lose him and have him alive, than to have him and watch him die. Some days, Danny really just wanted to go back to the past and yell some sense into Steve’s parents.

Their awful parenting and stacks of lies had really screwed with  _ both  _ of their children, in the long run. Danny sighed, answering his own question before Steve could try and lie his way through an answer.

“Because somehow, you still haven’t grasped how to do that, and not react like an emotionally repressed Navy SEAL.” He’s up and in front of Steve in mere moments, hands grasping his face and leaving Steve with no choice but to look directly at him. 

“I love you, Steven McGarrett. Even when you’re hurting, and hurting me in response. Even with you trying your damnedest to push me away.” At his soft, heart spoken words Steve crumbled in his hands, tears flowing free, Danny's name a broken plea that spilled from his lips on repeat. 

“I’m here, Steve. I’m right here babe.” Danny murmured drawing the other man into his arms and holding him close. This won't be the end of this discussion, not by a long shot. Danny had a lot of hurt and anger still to express, and Steve a  _ lot  _ of explanations and apologies to make on his end. There was still work to be done to assure that this would never happen again. But for now, Danny knew Steve needed his love and support—something he would  _ always  _ have instore for him. 

“I love you, too, Steve. I love you too.”

**Author's Note:**

> OOF Steve, just being an asshole D: He's so lucky Danny loves him so! 
> 
> Hope you liked!


End file.
